What do you do when you have hundreds of homeless individuals living on the streets in communities across Colorado — many with untreated mental health and addiction issues — and you have a vacant facility capable of providing housing and treatment services with a community ready and willing to serve them? That is the question currently being considered by the Colorado legislature regarding the vacant former Fort Lyon veterans’ hospital in Southeast Colorado.

The answer should be a no-brainer.

For the past 28 years, the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless has advocated for a comprehensive state plan to end homelessness, one that builds upon the local programs across the state and leverages resources to address the significant gaps in the existing homeless service system.

The coalition strongly supports the repurposing the hospital for housing and treatment services as part of a broader and comprehensive state effort to respond to increasing homelessness across the state, particularly for chronically homeless individuals and veterans. We have worked with the governor’s office over the past year to develop the program proposed to address the critical need for long-term residential treatment along with vocational and employment support services and direct access to housing.

Many homeless individuals have unique challenges in achieving long-term recovery. With histories of significant trauma, chronic substance use and mental illness, these individuals typically lack the capacity to access the limited existing available services.

The coalition has successfully implemented Housing First programs across the state that provide direct access to housing for chronically homeless individuals with mental illness. This approach has helped hundreds of people move immediately from the streets to stable housing in their communities. Assertive community treatment services have helped them successfully maintain their housing while addressing their mental health issues.

However, for too many individuals, their addictions to alcohol or drugs have negatively impacted their housing stability and interfered with their recovery. They are trapped in their addictions, unable to escape their “community of support” on the streets, which enables their continued substance abuse.

For these individuals, a different approach is desperately needed. Colorado ranks near the bottom of all states in the number of residential treatment programs for indigent persons with addictions and mental illness. For those currently on the streets seeking treatment, there are virtually no options available.

We believe that the program at Fort Lyon can best meet the needs of this vulnerable group. The facility offers resources that are not available in an urban setting:

• Immediate access to housing and treatment services for those seeking change.

• A healing environment away from the temptations that trap them in addiction.

• Informed care for those with a history of trauma.

• A welcoming community.

• A pathway back to stability in their community through reintegration services.

The proposed Fort Lyon program is not the answer to homelessness. However, it takes advantage of an immediately available facility and puts it to work to meet one of the most critical gaps in our homeless system. The question isn’t whether to create such a program at Fort Lyon or to support other efforts in communities across the state to address homelessness. We must do both. However, to bypass the unique opportunities provided here would be a great setback to those in search of immediate treatment and housing.

We urge Gov. John Hickenlooper and the legislature to both support the repurposing of Fort Lyon to meet the immediate needs of homeless individuals and to support additional efforts to expand permanent supportive housing and emergency response systems in communities across the state. We must do both if we are truly committed to ending homelessness in Colorado.

John Parvensky is president of the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless.